Repellent subject must be addressed

Within the last week, The Spokesman-Review has reported regional cases of West Nile Virus, a disease spread by mosquitoes, and relapsing fever, a tick-borne disease.

The news serves as a reminder that ticks and mosquitoes suck, and we should do what we can to avoid them.

Staying inside is not an option for outdoors enthusiasts any more than we’d abstain from drinking water to avoid ingesting nasty parasites and viruses.

The key is prevention.

In the backcountry, we filter or treat water to assure its purity. Similarly, we have several options to avoid woes from bugs, which tend to be at their worst early in the morning and late in the afternoon, about the same time the fish are on the bite.

I use a combination of defense tactics against bugs that’s worked well in mosquito-infested wonderlands ranging from the Idaho Selkirks to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

Clothing: Wear hat, pants and long-sleeve shirts with collars, all made with a fabric weave tight enough to prevent the penetration of a mosquito’s proboscis. This minimizes the amount of skin that must be protected by repellents and has the added benefit of sun protection.

Treated clothing: Ex Officio and other manufacturers are marketing hats, shirts, socks, pants and bandannas treated with the insecticide permethrin, which sickens or kills bugs if they try to land on your clothing.

This treatment is effective, but you can achieve similar results simply by purchasing permethrin and treating your own clothing. Sawyer makes an aerosol permethrin treatment that’s easy to use. It’s effective in warding off ticks by treating shoes, socks, pant legs, shirt sleeves and collars and perhaps a bandanna worn around your neck.

Permethrin does not harm fabrics and is odorless when dried. An application can last weeks and through several washings.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control recommends using permethrin only according to product labels. This is an insecticide and should be used ONLY on clothing. Never apply it directly to the skin and don’t spray it on clothing while it’s being worn.

Headnets: In extreme situations, a headnet is the only way to find God in mosquito country.

Repellents: The basic message is to buy a repellent with the active ingredient DEET, still the most effective repellent for mosquitoes and ticks, and apply it sparingly to exposed skin as needed.

Here’s the rest of the story.

The CDC recommends products with DEET or Picaridin (KBR 3023). Oil of lemon eucalyptus (active ingredient: p-menthane 3,8-diol or PMD) is a plant-based repellent that offers protection similar to repellents with low concentrations of DEET.

The CDC cites a study that found:

•A product containing 23.8 percent DEET provided an average of five hours of protection from mosquito bites.

•20 percent DEET provided almost four hours of protection.

•4.75 percent DEET protected for roughly 1.5 hours.

Actual protection will vary widely based on conditions.

I’m careful in using chemicals on my skin, especially 100 percent DEET products, preferring to apply them to a hat, collar or bandanna – and only minimally on my skin.

Some products, such as Ultrathon and Sawyer Family repellents use a controlled release technology that evens out the evaporation rate of DEET by encapsulating the active ingredient in protein. While lengthening the effectiveness of an application, the controlled release also reduces the absorption of DEET into the skin.

Note that DEET does not effectively repel all flies. When gnats and no-see-ums are a problem, repellents such as Sawyer’s Broad Spectrum, which also includes the active agent R-326, are most effective.

Aside from following label directions, here are a few more CDC recommendations for using repellents:

•Don’t apply repellent to skin that is under clothing or to cuts, wounds or irritated skin.

•After returning indoors, wash treated skin with soap and water.

•Stop using repellents in the rare case of skin irritations.

•Do not spray aerosol or pump products in enclosed areas or directly into your face. Similarly, a thoughtful adult won’t subject a child to a cloud of spray-on repellent.

I prefer to apply repellents to the back of my hands in order to rub the product onto my face and neck, or onto kids. This helps avoid getting the repellent near anyone’s eyes and mouth.

According to CDC, no definitive studies pinpoint what concentration of DEET is safe for children. Pediatricians also are wary of natural PMD products.

However, Dr. William Forgey, a wilderness medicine expert and author who was in Spokane last summer, told me the need to protect from West Nile Virus warrants responsible use of repellents on kids, as well as dressing them properly when exposed to mosquitoes.

The CDC says “no serious illness has been linked to the use of DEET in children when used according to manufacturer’s recommendations.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports repellents with 10-30 percent DEET when used according to product labels, although it recommends that repellents with DEET should not be used on infants less than two months old.